LOCAL Government and Community Development Minister Desmond McKenzie got a little hot under the collar and flew into defensive mode on Wednesday when Opposition legislator Natalie Neita Garvey questioned him about the viability of the Social Development Commission (SDC).

McKenzie, during the sitting of the Standing Finance Committee, dismissed as “utter rubbish and cheap propaganda” the argument about the Government gutting the SDC and abandoning Parish Development Committees (PDC) and Community Development Committees (CDC).

“I want to make the point, and I [was] hurt when I heard it. When we took office in 2016, there was zero items in the budget to support the SDC; no money was provided for the SDC,” he said.

McKenzie further contended that in 2016 it was discovered that the funding that was provided by the Government for PDCs were being used outside of the intended purpose.

“Back then, my first experience with the Parish Development Committee was when a member of the…committee called me complaining that the bank was about to repossess her car and she can’t pay her mortgage, because the funds that were provided to the Parish Development Committee for the operational use was being used to supplement people’s personal living. That was what we encountered in 2016,” he said.

“It was this Administration that restructured the Parish Development Committees. The argument is that we have not done anything…We are providing almost $1.5 million quarterly to the Parish Development Committees. I have met with them on several occasions. There is a structure in place, they are registered with the SDC. It is a system that is working. What we have done is to take the politics out of the operation of the Parish Development Committees, and I make no apology about that,” McKenzie further argued.

But Neita Garvey, in fielding her question, said it was not her intention to throw anybody under the bus but contended that she is not feeling the effect of the SDC in communities.

“I’m not feeling that we have given enough attention to the participatory democracy that we want to have for our people. The Parish Development Committees, the community-based organisations, the capacity-building, which is required to have communities participate in a more fulsome way. Because if they are on board with the process, with the programmes, with the policies, then I believe they will own them, and they will respond differently and we might have a better level of interaction at the local level. So I’m not sure where are with the PDCs because we seem to have abandoned those organisations,” she said.

McKenzie, however, said that the “mischief” that is being made about the SDC and the PDC is unfounded.

“It is unfounded because, if the country knew that it was the SDC that did the assessment on COVID, that allowed the country to work on a programme that took us through COVID,” he said.

“Don’t beat an organisation that suffered under your Administration,” McKenzie said as Neita Garvey tried to interject to say she was not seeking to bash the organisation.

“I never spoke ill of the SDC…I did not speak to SDC as being an organisation which is not important or necessary; I did not speak to it that way. What I’m speaking to is building the capacity of the SDC and the PDCs so that we can have a more inclusive structure of our people being involved,” Neita Garvey insisted.

Also joining the discussion, Neita Garvey’s Opposition colleague Lisa Hanna contended that all MPs are a product of the SDC, noting that some of the best programmes in her constituency are as a result of the SDC “doing plans and formidable things”.

She noted, however, that of the $1.7 billion set aside in the local government budget, there is no money for community development programmes.

McKenzie pointed out that $68 million is set aside for programmes, but Hanna said that $68 million across 63 constituencies needs to be prorated.